Clever predator – the praying mantis

It's summer, my backyard is full of life, and it's a paradise for insect watching.

After a careful search, I finally found a praying mantis. Lo and behold, this praying mantis is green, half-standing on a turquoise blade of grass, and you really can't find it without looking closely.

I saw that its long wings were like a sari, its small mouth was pointed, its soft neck was protruding from its front chest, and its head could rotate from side to side and pitch freely.

The two sharp forelimbs of the praying mantis are powerful "weapons". see! It has two rows of hard spikes on each of its two forelimbs, like a hacksaw with two rows of serrated teeth. The length of the serrations is staggered, increasing the mesh point and making the weapon more powerful. There is also a small slot left in the middle of the two rows of serrated teeth. In addition, the praying mantis has a killer, that is, a sharp hard hook at the end of the forelimb, comparable to the best steel needle. These make up the mantis's sharp tools for catching prey.

A dragonfly flew over. When the dragonflies flew closer, the praying mantises began to move. Only to see it suddenly open the trap, throw the hard hook of the last segment into the distance, hook the dragonfly and then recycle it, catching the prey between its two hacksaws. Then, the hind arm bent forward and clamped like a vise, and then the poor dragonfly was hooked by the spikes and completely dead. Witnessing this scene, my mouth was wide open and he forced himself not to make a sound, so as not to disturb the "predatory feast" in nature.

To further study the habits of the praying mantises, I put some spacious metal covers on the sand in the backyard — the hoods used on the dining table to keep flies out. Put some stones and weeds in each hood, which are homemade for the praying mantis. I went and caught a lot of praying mantises and kept them in a hood, some in solitary confinement, some in groups. Some locusts, crickets, white-faced ants, grasshoppers, etc. were caught as food for mantises.

When I put the insects in the hood, I saw the praying mantis attacking the insects without hesitation. The female mantis, whose stomach and body were larger than the male mantis, never flinched, and the insects would be hooked by it, become immobile in its serrations, and finally swallowed by it with relish.

One day, I saw an interesting situation. A large locust took the liberty of approaching the praying mantis, the mantis

The mantis jumped up in spasms and assumed a terrible posture: its wings were fully spread, standing up like two parallel sails, and its tail was curled into a crank, lifted and lowered, shaking violently, making a "fluttering" sound.

The praying mantis places its entire body on top of its hind feet, its long forebreast erection. The catcher, which was folded up and attached to the chest, was also fully opened, crossed and extended in a cross shape.

It remained motionless, watching over the locusts, and as soon as the opponent moved, its head turned slightly.

My guess is that the praying mantis did this to intimidate this powerful prey. This seemed to be very effective, and in the face of such a scene, the locust was overwhelmed and stupidly stopped in place. So the praying mantis swooped down with its two large curved hooks, grabbed the locust, and then clamped it with two saws. This poor locust became food for the praying mantis.

The praying mantis hooked the locust with one front limb, and the other held the locust's head and broke its neck. Then its pointed beak protruded from the back of its neck and bit down gently bites it bite by bite until the struggling locust turned into a corpse.

I found that when the praying mantis was extremely hungry, it would eat its prey in its entirety, leaving only its wings that were too dry and hard. Eat such a big game game, two hours is enough. Such a "carnivorous giant demon" is really rare.

What a clever and cruel predator the praying mantis is!